


In From the Cold

by Chiisanafukuro (makuro)



Series: Under the Winter Moon [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Comfort, I need something soft right now, M/M, Sex, Witch AU, handjob
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-20 19:49:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17028915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makuro/pseuds/Chiisanafukuro
Summary: Keith is content with his life as a semi-hermit with his plants. Or he was.(prequel to "On a Winter Night)





	In From the Cold

**Author's Note:**

> @theprojectava drew these AMAZING Witch Hunter AU pieces ( [This](https://twitter.com/TheProjectAVA/status/1058082255501967361) [And This](https://twitter.com/TheProjectAVA/status/1061604107880947712)) and this is what happened.

Winter had come over the city like a an angry hoard trying to siege a kingdom. Keith burrowed deeper into his jacket, happy for the down jacket his mother had blessed with charms for him. The filling kept him warm even with the howling winds around him, blasting through alley ways and streets.

Snow wasn’t deep yet, only piled up to ankles, but the temperature was dropping steadily, well below freezing and approaching the negatives with fury.

If he hadn’t been called by the moon to go out tonight Keith wouldn’t have left at all. But the call signaled that he needed to reward the house, and for that he needed some extra charm items. Regardless, he hated leaving his house, interacting with strangers, interacting with people he knew. Interacting in general. He just wanted to get home to his greenhouse and the quiet. Pick back up the book he’d been trying to translate. Maybe make something better to eat than what he could warm up with a heating charm.

The cold ripped through the alley, skin not covered by his jacket leeching the air in and making him shiver down to his bones. His mother’s charms warmed him back up after, but it was still unpleasant. He was going to have words with Lance if the local weather witch had anything to do with this. Over text. Talking on the phone led to Lance coming over and Keith wanted no living soul at his house other than him and his plants.

Keith worried about his plants, even with the magical barrier around the greenhouse this sudden arctic cold could still harm them. He was trying to make it back home as fast as he could, the items he needed for the new protection wards on his house jingling in his pocket. He was so focused on that goal of getting home that he almost missed the sound.

It was low. Pathetic, like something was dying. He whipped around and peered back into the alley. He had to back up to take a proper look down it.

The noise game again. It was a man whimpering and an animal growling, the sound melding together into something that plucked at Keith’s heart.

He lit a fire in is palm, letting it grow in strength so he could target it like a spear if he needed to. He could feel the upside-down crescent moon on his cheek light with power. The symbol of his mother’s house, the crying moon.

There was a lump of something clinging to life in the alley next to the dumpster. Keith moved even slower, letting his senses tell him what was out there. It wasn’t a demon, he would have sensed their presence before now. It wasn’t human, that was a given. The magic in it was dormant or… suppressed. Something was wrong with it no matter. Very wrong.

He finally moved to where his fire cast light over the body and he had to hold back a scream.

The mass was a man, or mostly. Where a right arm would be was a mess of metal and glowing purple runes, pulsing in time with each whimper the man made. Keith stepped forward lightly, hoping not to scare the man, if the man could even notice him with the pain he was clearly in.

He was part wolf, Keith could sense that immediately. If it was werewolf or shapeshifter he wasn’t entirely sure, but there as wolf in him nonetheless.

He was bleeding from several large gashes in his side. The arm was clearly trying to mitigate the pain, or even heal the wound, but all it was doing was causing more tension in the body. Something in the charms on the arm keeping the magic from reaching the rest of the body.

Keith knelt down and spoke softly. “Hey, hey there. Do you need help?”

The man growled and his head shot up. His eyes were soft grey, narrowed though when he looked at Keith.Most of his face was covered in long, tangled hair, white at the front and the rest jet black. His mouth was twisted in a snarl, revealing some sharp canines that didn’t look like they actually fit the current mouth on the man. Definitely a shape shifter then. A werwolf wouldn’t be able to only partially transform like that under duress.

Keith stretched his hand out, palm up toward the man. “You can scent me,” he said, remaining calm. If he showed any sign of the fear that was simmering in his belly the wolf could lunge and kill him.

Slowly, mouth still pulled in a snarl, the wolf sniffed the air. He winced at first, snorted and pulled back. Keith held firm, not moving an inch. The wolf shifted forward and sniffed again. This time he kept moving forward, taking deeper sniffs. Eventually, sensing no ill will from Keith, he whined, high and distressed. He put his cheek in Keith’s hand and nuzzled. Keith would have started saying things to encourage the man but his hair had shifted and Keith had a clear view of his face.

The scar slashed across his nose, deep grey eyes, strong jawline. Maybe his hair was still full of midnight and not starlight, but Keith knew this face more than the faces of his own parents. This was a face that had been in his dreams since he was a boy, full of promises and warmth.

“ _Oh,_ ” Keith said, his heart clenching his chest. “Oh, my darling.” He pulled his hand away and the wolf frowned, whimpering at the loss of touch, but Keith was too busy ripping his coat off. The rags the man was in couldn’t be dong much of anything in this cold.

He settled the coat around the man’s shoulders and slowly, so slowly, helped him up to his feet. Keith could care less about updating his wards right now. He used whatever magic he could to charm them home faster so he could properly heal the man.

He also used another handy but rather taxing charm to text his mother without getting his phone out.

The man almost buckled on him, a sharp, pain gasp echoing out into the night. Keith caught him though, pulling more of the mans weight onto him.

“It’s all right, it’s all right,” Keith cooed. “I’ve got you big guy.”

 

The walk to his house was arduous, but they got there. Krolia was waiting outside for them, tapping her foot on Keith’s porch.

“You found someone and need helping healing him. Keith. What have I told you about trying to help…stray…” She paused as she looked over the man, seeing the way Keith held him. How Keith was expending his magic for the man. “Keith?”

“It’s him mom,” Keith said, hauling the man up the stairs. “It’s him and he’s got a wound in his side. He’s bleeding a lot.”

Krolia backed up to make room for them. “Get him in then,” she said, her voice gone soft in disbelief. “Your father set up a cot already.”

Keith shook his head. “He’s coming to my room.”

“Keith—“

Keith ignored her and got the man inside, beelining for the stairs and using a quick charm to make the man weightless so he could fireman carry him up.

“Keith! Keith who is it?” His father shouted up after him.

“Later pops! Just get me hot water!” Keith shouted. The man’s breathing was growing shallow with each step. “Come on darling, just a bit more for me,” he whispered.

In his room Keith set the man gently down over his covers and began ripping off the old rags. The footsteps coming into the room behind him were this mothers.

“Keith are you sure?”

“Dead,” Keith said. “Can you get my crystal circle set?”

“On it,” she said.

Keith had gotten all of the clothes off of the man. His body was showing the early signs of frostbite, and there were bruises everywhere on his skin like a mosaic. Keith started with the frostbite, pulling blood back into those parts of his body and making it warm the tissue there back into life. The man screamed as he did this.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry love,” Keith said, using his free hand to stroke the man’s arm. “But you’ll be better for this, I promise, just a little bit more for me.”

“Water!” HIs father called, bursting into the room. Krolia directed him to set it beside the bed and she got going on cleaning out the wound along the man’s ribs.

Keith tapped into the crystal she had set around the bed and pulled their strength up into the man for healing. His mother caught what he was doing and did the same, her own magic focusing on the surface issues while Keith let his magic reach deep. There had been some kind of poison on the thing that had scratched him. There were blocking charms too, like he had thought. And he took all the strength he could to break them. The first few weren’t bad at all, and they let the man’s magic flow through him to help self-healing. That was a relief to both he and his mother, but there were still some that were coordinating parts of his metal arm that Keith didn’t like and would have to look into later.

Finally, after a good hour of healing and runes and other circles of protection the man was healed. In a deep, and likely nightmare filled sleep if his face was anything to go by, but he was asleep. Keith was slumped at his side, exhausted, but unwilling to leave. He kept trailing his fingers through the mans hair, carefully picking at knots and making the strands lay smooth. His hair was clean, save snow and some dirt from the alley, so that meant he had been put out like this recently. That broke something in Keith a bit.

“You need to rest too,” His mother said, but not unkindly. “And if you refuse to move, at least let me expand the bed so you can lie down too.”

Keith didn’t have an argument for that and he let her. “Thank you,” he whispered, his own eyes starting to fall shut.

“You used a lot on him,” she said, her smile wry. “Rest now. We’ll sort you both out in the morning.”

“Pending he doesn’t eat you in your sleep,” His father joked.

Keith could do little more than smile at them in his exhaustion. His mother clicked off the lights in his bedroom and Keith fell asleep to the sound of the man breathing shortly after.

 

Light in the winter was a bright and reflective thing, making its way beneath eyelids and into rooms without the warmth the other seasons carried it with. Keith groaned at it’s intrusion into his eyes and pulled a pillow over his head.

“I feel the same,” a gruff voice next to him said.

Keith let the pillow slip off his face and sat up. Laid down next to him was a beautiful man with long black hair save a white lock at the front. Keith’s heart did a flip looking down at the face he’d seen in his dreams since he was a child.

“You…” The night before came back to him at once. The alley, the blood, the fight up the stairs and here in this bed. Here in this bed with this very naked, beautiful man.

“I’m assuming your’e the one who saved me?” The man shifted and sat up further against the pillows so he was looking down at Keith now. “Your mother came in early this morning when I woke up and explained some of it.”

“Oh,” Keith said. He tugged at the hair at the back of his neck. “Yeah, I found you last night. I’m Keith, by the way. And sorry about—” he gestured to them both in the bed. “I was exhausted last night and passed out.”

“Since you passed out healing me I don’t think I have much room to complain, Keith.” The man said his name soft like a prayer and Keith melted inside. “I’m Shiro. Takashi Shirogane.”

Keith smiled. “How are you feeling, Shiro?” The name on in tongue reached down and made a home in his heart, burrowing deep.

“Better than I have in a long, long time,” Shiro said. “I’ve… been through some things.” He lifted the arm in example.

“I can see that.” Keith bit at his lip. “Are you hungry? I can go downstairs and cook something. Then we can… we can talk if you want. Or you can go back to wherever home is for you, you’re not obligated to stay.”

“I don’t have a home,” Shiro said. He frowned and looked down at his hands, fidgeting the metal one. “I don’t have anywhere I need to go.”

“Oh. Okay.” Keith cleared his throat. “I’ll go make some food then yeah? Anything you want?”

Shiro was still staring at his hands. “Anything is fine,” he whispered.

Keith leaned forward and put a hand on Shiro’s shoulder. “Really, you look like you’ve been through too much all ready. Is there anything I can make to help?”

Shiro snorted. “Pancakes?”

Keith smiled and squeezed his shoulder. “I can make pancakes no problem, Shiro.”

Keith stretched as he got out of bed, bones popping as he did. He steadfastly did not acknowledge the way Shiro’s eyes roved over his body. Besides, he’d only mildly tried to show off for the other many while he stretched.

He told Shiro to come down when he was ready and went down himself, readying for the lecture from his mother he was about to get.

True to prediction she was sitting at his kitchen table with a hot mug of coffee and a frown. “Keith.”

“I know, I know,” he said and went to the pantry to look for pancake mix. He didn’t need to be on the other end of her judgment right now. “It was rash and reckless but he’s the one I’ve been seeing, mom, there’s no other explanation for him having… that face. I couldn’t leave him there.”

“I know that, but you could have called me sooner. We could have taken him to the coven house instead of into your home and wards. We don’t know where he came from! You don’t even know his name.”

“Shiro,” Keith said quickly. “It’s Takashi Shirogane.”

Krolia groaned. “Tex?”

“Look, darlin’, we’ve watched him try and figure out those dreams for years. Do you really think he wouldn’t know the man in them right off the bat.”

“A man with multiple magic made scars, a metal arm covered in battle charms, and is a lab-shifter!” Krolia slammed her hand on the table. “This is the recipe for some kind of disaster, and forgive me if I don’t want our only son in the middle of it.”

Keith pulled down the pancake mix and turned slowly back to his mother. “Lab-shifter?”

“Yes, Keith, didn’t you smell that? He’s not a natural wolf. They _changed_ him, whoever had him. I bet they put that arm on too. Someone was making a weapon of your boy up there.”

“That someone is going to want him back, son,” his father said. There was less venom in his voice than his mothers, but it still stung deep in Keith to hear them talk like that.

“Look, that can all get worked out later. Right now he wants pancakes and I’m going to fucking make him pancakes, all right?”

His mother opened her mouth to say more but a subtle motion from his father that cut her off. Keith was grateful for that.

He made pancakes in silence, his parents choosing to not try and broach the topic any further. When Keith was pulling out a package of frozen bacon to defrost and cook Shiro finally came downstairs.

“Morning,” he said a little gruffly. He was moving slowly, like everything still hurt.

He also had the blanket from Keith’s bed bunched around his hips. “I um… the clothes I was wearing?”

“ Were in very ill repair,” Krolia said. She clicked her fingers.

Shiro gasped and dropped the blanket, but he was in a soft pair of sweats beneath it now. There was a heather gray t-shirt too, clinging to his muscles even through his mother clearly tried to size up to avoid that. Keith flushed and cursed his mother for knowing him too well.

“Pancakes are up,” Keith said. “And I’ll have bacon going in a second. There’s coffee ready, and I have milk in the fridge too if you want.”

“Just water, I think,” Shiro said carefully. “I don’t want anything to upset the system beyond the sugar I’m about to eat.”

“Smart man,” Tex said. He stood to get the glass of water for Shiro. “I’m Tex, and this is my wife Krolia. Keith gets all his witchin’ from her. Keith told us your name earlier but I didn’t quite catch it. What was it again?””

“Takashi Shirogane,” Shiro said and took the glass from Tex when it was offered. “Thank you.”

“If you don’t mind us asking, what got you into this predicament, Shiro?” Krolia asked, ever tactful. “We can tell you aren’t magically inclined naturally.”

“Mom!” Keith set the plate of pancakes down with force. “Do we really need to interrogate him now?”

“It’s all right,” Shiro said. He cautiously pulled a few pancakes onto his plate. “I get it. I’m an unknown who got dragged in half dead.” He pushed the pancakes around his plate a little bit. “I wish I could tell you everything I’m sure you want to know, but the truth is I don’t remember much. I know my name. I know that I’m ex-marine. I lost my arm to a disease a few years back and got discharged.” He shrugged the limb and looked at the metal hand like it was a new and strange entity to him too. “I saw an ad in the VA for a group called Vrepit Sa, they were looking for injured vets to test out new prosthetics. Heading to their corporate headquarters was the last thing I really remember doing. Everything else is…” he shuddered. “I can’t tell if they’re memories or nightmares.”

Keith let that sink in while he cooked the bacon. His mother must have been in a similar state of shock since it was Tex who picked up the conversation and started giving reassurances to Shiro.

A chair scraped back from the table and his mother was at his elbow. “See.”

“It doesn’t mean that he’s _with them,_ ” Keith hissed. “It just means he was held by them and experimented on, most likely.”

“But who knows what they implanted. And now he’s _here_. We’re Marmora, Keith. This isn’t something that we can ignore!” Krolia pulled her son close, charming her voice so it could only be heard by Keith. “We do not know that he’s safe. You cannot let him stay here until we have him looked at.”

“Mom—”

“Ulaz is missing.”

Keith dropped the bacon he was flipping back into the pan, making the grease splash up onto his arm. He barely noticed it. “Is he…”

“No,” Krolia said. “We can still feel his signature. So he’s not dead. But it happened a few nights ago. Same as when those fresh marks on your boy likely happened. We can’t ignore that they might be related, Keith.”

Keith went back to his bacon, muttering a spell to cool the burn on his arm. He was irked that it didn’t heal all the way, but he’d used a lot of his power last night on Shiro.

“Fine. But we’re taking him _today_ mom. I’m not waiting on this.” There was a jitteriness in his bones now knowing that the Vrepit Sa coven could be looking for Shiro. He wanted to make sure that wouldn’t happen. Or that if it did, there would be no way for them to get Shiro back.

Shiro didn’t need to be near Honerva more than he likely already had been.

Keith glanced back at him and tried to see if he could feel any of her lingering inside of the man. He wasn’t able to sort anything out though, all of Shiro was too jumbled up to read.

“See,” his mother said again. “You sense it now. I’m not saying he’s evil or that we can’t help him, Keith. We just need to be cautious about how we do so.”

“You’re right,” he said. “But call Kolivan today, please.”

Krolia squeezed his shoulder. “I will.”

After breakfast Keith let Shiro go through his old clothes for a few sets to keep and wear. He was methodically tailoring them to fit Shiro’s broad form on the floor of the living room. Shiro was sitting on the cough, watching him.

Keith’s parents had left to seek out Kolivan an hour or so earlier. Krolia had left a shade to watch over Keith which was driving Keith crazy. She’d masked the damn thing so Shiro wouldn’t catch onto it, but that also meant Keith couldn’t see where it was, just feel it walking all over his wards.

“How long have you been a witch?”

The question caught Keith off guard, almost ripping the shirt seam more instead of mending it over the newly expanded cloth. “I’ve always been one,” Keith said. “Mom has been too. It’s in our blood.”

“Oh.” Shiro’s demeanor changed a bit then. “So you’re Galra?”

Keith was waiting for this moment. Once Shiro had let slip that he’d been with Vrepit Sa for the past year, Keith knew this would come up. “Yes, I’m half, and part of my mother’s coven. We don’t agree with the… driving principals of Vrepit Sa.”

“That’s… that’s good to know.” Shiro kicked his legs restlessly before pulling them up onto the couch. “If you’d told me a year ago I’d be part of all of this I would have taken you to a hospital to get checked out.”

Keith laughed and held up the shirt to look for an spots he might have missed. “I wouldn’t blame you. We do a good job of keeping out of sight and mind. People see more than they think they do, but their brains just write it off as something else. They rework the memory or their comprehension of what they are seeing, so that it doesn’t break their idea of reality. Human brains are really remarkable.”

“Kinda wish I still had one,” Shiro chuckled. “At least one that didn’t explicitly know all of this.” He swallowed. “I am glad though, that I met you. Thank you for saving me last night.”

“I wasn’t going to leave you there,” Keith said. He was a little embarrassed by the amount of emotion that was present in his voice.

“Still, you don’t know who I am. And I admitted to having been in a… volatile place as far as your world goes for the past year. Doesn’t that give you some sort of pause?”

“It does,” Keith said honestly. “And later today we’re going to take you to someone who can look you over better than my mom or I could. But,” he sighed and reached over the stack of clothes for some pants, “for now you’re here with me and the hand-me-downs.” 

Shiro didn’t seem upset about that and settled back into the couch. “So what kind of witch are you and your mother? If it’s not too weird to ask.”

Keith shrugged. “It isn’t. I work in herbs mostly, potions, simple charms. If you had to put a name to it I guess I’m one of the local witches for the city? Like, people come to me with little ailments, or questions. Needing charms. Sometimes I’ll do readings for people, but they usually get more than they bargained for so I stopped doing that.” He smiled ruefully. “When looking at a future there’s only so much you actually want to know, come to find out.”

Shiro hummed. “Makes sense. I don’t know if I would have wanted to know about this happening.”

Keith tried to keep that pain in Shiro’s voice with Shiro. It made no sense to take it on himself right now. He needed to let Shiro’s problems be Shiro’s, for now.

“Have you seen your future?”

Keith shook his head. “I never try to ask. I really don’t want to know all that badly to be honest. I get dreams sometimes, about things that might happen. People that might come into my life,” he said it nonchalantly. Shiro didn’t need that part of all of this in his life right now.

Shiro frowned and blasted right through Keith’s plan. “That’s why you picked me up, isn’t it? You’ve seen me before.”

Keith shook the pants out and looked for any imperfections before he resized them. “Yes. But you don’t need to worry about that right now, Shiro. Just rest and we’ll get everything else sorted later with the Marmora.”

“You called me darling. And love,” he said. He didn’t sound upset about it. More curious.

Keith flushed and wished he could cast a sleeping spell without feeling guilty about it. “You’re someone important to me. I’ve been seeing you in my dreams for a very long time, Shiro.” He trailed his hand over the jeans, letting them out to Shiro’s size easily. “But like I said, that’s not something you need to worry about.”

Shiro chuckled. “I kind of want to. A super sexy witch swoops in and saves me on a snowy night, and now he tells me I’ve been the literal _man of his dreams_? Yeah I don’t think I’m not going dwell on that. It’s kind of the best news I’ve had all year.”

Keith’s blush turned a bright red. “You’re ridiculous.”

“I’ve been told.” Shiro smiled and leaned back. “My ex never appreciated it.” He said it like he knew Keith might.

Keith was certain he already did.

 

Krolia came back without his father late in the afternoon. She did have three other men with her. Keith’s heart leapt in relief when he saw Ulaz limping in behind her, Thace sending him frequent worried glances. Kolivan brought up the rear and had a hard look on his face from the get go. Keith was sure that look wasn’t going to change.

Krolia shrugged at Keith when he stared her down. “Bringing them here was easier.” The others walked past her into the kitchen.

“I know you,” Shiro said the moment he saw Ulaz.

“Yes, and I know you, Shiro.”

Ulaz walked forward, the limp making Thace frown behind him. “I was… touring, shall we say, a Vrepit Sa facility when I saw you. I posed as a doctor to get into your holding room and broke you out two nights ago. Unfortunately they caught me just as you had successfully escaped but I fought them off and laid low. I was going to try and track you today, when Krolia came to us. I’m glad Keith found you, I was worried I had released you to your death.”

“It was a near thing,” Shiro admitted. “Someone attacked me in the city outside of the facility, but I think I killed them.”

“You did,” Kolivan confirmed gruffly. “We had to clean up the body.”

Ulaz waved Kolivan away. “This is Kolivan, he’s the head witch for the coven. And this is Thace, my partner and worrying expert.”

“You were missing for two whole days, Ulaz. After deciding to take a look around a facility inbeded deep in a coven that hates our guts. By yourself. Without telling me until _after_ you’d let to do so.” Thace looked like he wanted to shake Ulaz.

“Nothing new then. And you married me, you knew what you were getting into, this is your own damn fault.” Ulaz stepped forward into Shiro’s space, eyes bright. Up close Shiro saw that his sclera were tinged yellow. It wasn’t a sickly looking color though set against bright violet eyes. The color was subtle yet bright. Altogether it made a decently pleasant combination.

The proximity of Ulaz set Shiro’s arm off, activating with purple runes.

“Ulaz!”

“Fascinating,” Ulaz hummed. He reached a single finger out and traced it along a rune on the arm. The arm instantly powered down, though not without a pained grunt from Shiro. “So, that tells me most of the spells are out of it, or I’d be dead already.”

“What the fuck,” Shiro heaved. His words were clumsy, like there was something in his mouth he was trying to talk around.

Keith looked closer and saw that he was. There were long, sharp canine teeth jutting out from Shiro’s mouth.

“Ah, then there’s that part of it all, isn’t there,” Ulaz said. He didn’t seem perturbed by Shiro at all. Thace looked green and Kolivan had his hand on his dagger. So did Krolia.

Ulaz, sensing the distress in the room, waved them all down. “It’s all right. This, my dear friends, is that experiment Lotor was going on about at that last city convergence.”

“The super soldier? The one they were thinking about selling to the army?” Thace looked disgusted. “They… they made alchemic modification to a non-magical body? That’s barbaric!”

“Close, yes. And most of their test subjects rejected the mods until they found the the ingredient they needed,” Ulaz said. His was staring down Shiro’s teeth like they were a particularly delectable looking meal. “By changing a normal human into a shapeshifter they can better adapt the alchemic bits they need to weaponize the subject. Looks like though they don’t know how to have the subject control their own modifications yet.” He frowned. “Or they didn’t want them to. What kind of spells did you find in the arm, Keith?”

“Mostly remote controlling,” Keith said. His heart was pounding in his chest. He’d suspected something like this with the condition Shiro was in, but hearing it confirmed was more painful than he anticipated. “A lot of it though was blocking his access to his magic.”

“So they give him all the strength and magic to wield an arm like that, but none of the freedom to control himself. Clever,” Ulaz said. “Shiro, can you calm down?”

It seemed like a blunt, rude question. Keith riled and wanted to call Ulaz out. Then he saw how panicked Shiro actually looked. Ulaz wasn’t asking him to calm down, he was checking if Shiro even could.

Shiro shook his head stiffly.

“I thought as much. Thace, love, would you come hold him down please?”

Thace moved instantly, locking Shiro’s head with one arm and his metal arm with the other. In front of him Ulaz was casting a binding spell while Shiro thrashed.

“What the hell are you doing!” Keith shouted, springing to help Shiro.

“Keith wait!” Krolia grabbed his arm and held him back. “Just wait. Let Ulaz do this.”

Binding spell complete Ulaz was chanting lowly, his magic pouring out and into Shiro. There were more complicated binding spells there, but nothing that kept the magic in the arm from working, or keeping his new innate magic from working either. To that end Shiro was shrinking. His bones were reforming under his skin too, slowly morphing until there was a black wolf with a white forelock standing shakily in the living room.

“There,” Ulaz said brightly. “He’ll stay like this until he can figure out how to turn back. Once he can turn back he should be in full control of everything.”

“Are you serious!” Keith wailed. “I _just_ got him! And now he’s going to have to be a wolf?”

Ulaz frowned. “This is in his best interest Keith, surely you see that.”

“This is him, isn’t it?” Thace asked.

Kolivan and Krolia answered at the same time.

“Yes.” “Unfortunately.”

Ulaz looked down at Shiro who was whimpering and standing stiffly on shaking legs. “Oh. Apologies, Keith, but this really is the best way to get him in total control over all his new… properties.”

He finally had the one person he’d been waiting his whole life for, and they had to spend their first days together with Shiro as a fucking wolf. Keith felt like dramatically throwing himself on the couch. Instead he sucked in a very tense breath and knelt down in front of Shiro, who clearly needed help.

“Hey, Shiro, it’s okay. You’re still you. You might be beholden to the moon a bit more than you used to be, but I can help there. My mother’s clan is of the crying moon, see?” He pointed to the mark on his cheek below his eye, the upside-down crescent moon with the star-like tear tracks sliding down to his neck and beneath his collar bone. “And this will be a form you can use any time now. To make sure the new arm didn’t kill you they had to made you a shapeshifter. It might be why you don’t remember anything. It can be very traumatic if it gets forced on you.” He reached a hand out and tentatively put it over the back of Shiro’s neck. “I know this is weird, really weird, but can I touch you? Can I pet you? It might help calm you down a bit.”

Shiro whined but jerked his head up so the back of his neck came in contact with Keith’s hand. Keith immediately started to stroke slow and heavy down Shiro’s spine. On the third pass Shiro collapsed into a heap of more legs than he was used to and Keith had to catch his head in his lap.

“I think he’s having a mental breakdown.”

“You wouldn’t?” Thace asked, looking incredulously at Ulaz. “Come on, let’s leave them. You’ve both seen he’s harmless, yes?”

“No,” Krolia said. “But I trust your binding spells, Ulaz. We’ll need to check on him again in a few days. Please don’t do anything stupid in the meantime.”

“Unlikely.” Thace sighed. “Kolivan?”

“I still don’t like one damn bit of this,” he groused. “But Krolia is right, Ulaz has great skills in binding, and once Shiro can control his magic we can discuss how to deal with that arm.” Kolivan turned and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Always dramatic when he felt like his authority was overridden.

“I’ll be over twice a day,” Krolia said. “And I want regular updates. And if you don’t pick your phone up on the second ring—”

“Yes, yes mom. I got it. We’re all on probation. Understood. Can you leave now? I think Shiro needs some time without being prodded into a new form of existence.”

Krolia held up her hands and proceeded to steer the other two out as well.

When the door shut Keith cast a repelling spell over the whole house and his greenhouse. No more interruptions today, not when Shiro was still shaking on the ground.

“Oh, sweet,” Keith said, hunching over Shiro to hold his head. “It’s all right, this is normal. I mean, I know it isn’t normal, but this is part of you. It’s okay. Just breathe. I’m here.”

Shiro trembled for another hour or so, Keith trying to hold and calm him through it. When the shaking finally subsided Shiro tried to get his feet under him. It took a couple of attempts but he got there. Standing now Keith could see how big he still was. His shoulder was on level with Keith’s hip.

“Well, you’re a handsome wolf, so there’s that at least.”

Shiro snorted in clear displeasure.

“Look this is… unpleasant and really unwanted but you’ll be all right.” Keith sighed and fiddled with Shiro’s ear until Shiro flicked it away. “I know you don’t really actually know me, not more than today. The fact that I’ve had dreams about you doesn’t mean much to you. I know that too. But please trust me when I say that this is all right. You’re going to be okay, and this will… well it’s the first step to making sure that you’ll be able to live successfully on your own in this world.”

Shiro huffed, but he butted his head against Keith’s stomach and submitted to some very affectionate pets and scratches, so Keith had to think it was all right. For now.

Shiro ended up eating the steak that Keith cooked, and a bit of baked potato. Keith wasn’t sure what to feed a wolf beyond meat, and was going to leave it at that but Shiro had whined at the sight of the potato so Keith had let that go as well. It wasn’t his usual dinner either (that was normally cereal and tea… when he remembered to eat at all). After what might have been the first decent meal Keith had eaten in a month he curled up with an old tome on his couch, journal in hand for notes. Shiro curled on the other end, napping or rubbing up against Keith’s legs until they were both sleepy.

Keith got up first, stretching, joints popping and making Shiro more alert. He perked up and watched Keith put away his book, journal, and tea mug.

“Time for bed I think,” Keith said. He went up the stairs, Shiro following behind him.

Keith stripped out of his shirt and pants, leaving on a pair of boxers only. He’d never been shy about his body, and even if it did send a weird thrill through him, he wasn’t going to start being now.

He happily crawled into bed and it wasn’t until he heard award shuffling on paws that it clicked.

“You can sleep up here, with me, if you want,” he said into the darkness. The weight on the bed shifted instantly, as if Shiro had bounded up onto the bed in one go. He might have.

Keith reached forward and found Shiro’s back. He trailed his hand to his head and cupped it again, rubbing over one soft ear.

“Sleep, it’ll be better in the morning. I promise.”

 

The next morning was bacon and a long walk around the city, Shiro glamoured as a very large husky. He was nervous at first, that much was clear, but as the day wore on he was happily bouncing around and getting affection from curious strangers.

When they went home Shiro followed Keith to the greenhouse and padded after him as he took care of the plants and made tinctures and potions. Keith found he actually liked the company. Shiro didn’t ask many questions, only making a low whine, or putting a paw up on Keith’s leg when he wanted to know what was going on. Keith was happy to explain.

Shiro wandered the greenhouse too, taking the admittedly large place in. Keith knew his plants wouldn’t do anything to Shiro. And for those that might, was too big to catch and eat, so it wasn’t an issue. Keith did hear him growl at one, and the plant hissed back in what sounded like fear. Keith was oddly proud of that moment.

That night Keith cooked again, chicken, and Shiro ate it all up, even the baked carrots which Keith was not at all happy with. When the dishes were finished they settled on the couch again. At least Keith tried to, but Shiro kept getting up and down off the couch and whining.

“What is it?” Keith asked, putting his book down. Shiro padded away to the bookshelf and nosed at a copy Keith and of _Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy_.

“Really?” Keith pulled the book off the shelf. He’d gotten it at a used book store when he was buying an old spell book. The spell book was marketed as a spell book, but on the outside it looked like one of those gimmick books for teenagers that thought they were true Wiccan practitioners. It was a practical disguise. Keith had bout the copy of _Hitchhikers_ with it, making it look like just a young goth kid purchasing nerd stuff. He’d actually never gotten around to reading the book itself.

He pulled it down from the shelf and went back to the couch with it. It took a lot of propping, and some delicate paw and nail work for page turning, but they got Shiro set up. Keith tucked his toes under Shiro’s back legs for warmth and there they stayed until they were both sleepy again and curled together in bed.

It became routine. Shiro eventually found his own patterns outside of following Keith around. After the first two weeks everyone at the shops Keith frequented knew Shiro and would happily load him up with shopping and take their money out of the pouch around his neck. Keith would glamor him before he went out, so he didn’t freak out any humans, but the system worked well. Shiro was able to get out and have some time to himself on his errand walks, and Keith could burrow into books and spell research and forget to each lunch.

That always earned him a stern bark when Shiro got back to no plates in the dish drain, just a cup of tea, long gone cold, at Keith’s elbow.

In the third or fourth week, Lotor, the son of Vrepit Sa’s coven leaders, had come to the house. Keith hadn’t let him inside, but he still knew that Shiro was there. Keith did everything short of attack him to get him to leave. Eventually Lotor backed off the walkway to the neutral sidewalk and held his hands up.

“Look,” he had said. “My mother and father would desperately like their little pet back, but here’s the thing—we both know that you’re more than halfway through breaking those enchantments. Bringing him back now means possibly subduing a man who has knows exactly what is going on with their little science theatre ala magework. No one wants that legal nightmare, and as a warlock and their lawyer I can tell you I will _not_ slough through that nightmare. So,” Lotor pulled out a thick tome of paper, “this is the contract he signed.” He held out it out for Keith to look at.

Keith scanned it over for any duplicating charms or anything that could prove this was a fake, but the blood seal on it was something that couldn’t be faked or reproduced.

“You and your wolf leave us be, and I let you burn that.”

Keith frowned. Shiro wouldn’t like that Vrepit Sa would still be around to take advantage of other people, but it would mean they would leave Shiro alone. The Marmora would still be working to bringing their misdeeds under the thumb of the local council. They could both live with that, he thought.

Keith nodded and burned the contract in his hands.

“Excellent.” Lotor turned to go but looked back one last time, a slow smirk coming over his face. “I heard they made him a wolf? Enjoy that first moon, Keith.”

True to Lotor’s warning, the first full moon had been rough. Shiro had howled and shivered through the whole thing. Keith had started to get really concerned and called Ulaz and his mother, but when they got there Shiro went nearly feral, snarling at them and not letting them anywhere near Keith, let alone up the path to the house.

Keith had dragged Shiro back into the house and curled up with him in bed until the night passed. Shiro spent the entire next day with his tail between his legs whimpering.

“It’s okay,” Keith said, exasperated with how pitiful Shiro was acting. He pulled the wolfs face up in his hands and planted a solid, lingering kiss between his eyes. “It’s part of who you are now, and there is nothing wrong with it. I’ll help you figure it out.” Keith used to add an ‘if you want me to’ at the end of that statement, but somehow he knew that once Shiro learned how to turn back, he wouldn’t be leaving Keith.

And Keith was eagerly awaiting that time.

 

The way it happened, finally, after three and half months, was very stupid.

Keith was cooking dinner, salmon with dill and lemon because damnit he liked cooking now that there was someone to cook for. He had been drizzling oil over the asparagus and salmon, and Shiro just wouldn’t stop _whining_.

“What? We’re not having carrots with fucking salmon, Shiro. We’ve had them for three nights in a row now, I want something else.”

Shiro butted his head against Keith’s legs.

“Dude, no, deal with asparagus,” Keith chuckled. They got into tats like this every now and again but Shiro was still agitated. It wasn’t close to a moon, so there must have been something else Shiro was trying to get at.

Shiro barked at him as he went to put the tray into the oven making Keith startle and drop the whole damn thing on the floor.

“Fucking shit!—Damnit Shiro, what the hell is with you today? Wake up on the wrong side of the bed or something?” Keith knelt down to start picking up the uncooked food on the floor but Shiro barked again, loudly. Keith sighed and resumed his crouch down. “What? What is it? Shiro if you really need to tell me go grab the damn alphabet board or—”

“YOU PUT THE NIGHTSHADE OIL ON THE FOOD YOU IDIOT!”

Keith froze.

Behind him there was the sound of heavy breathing, an not through a snout but through a nose. A human nose. And a human mouth, if the breathy little pants were anything to go by.

Slowly, ever so slowly, he turned and was met with a pair of long, muscled, shaking legs. He followed the legs up, and up, and there he was. Shiro. Human.

Shiro’s grey eyes were wide and his mouth was open as he tried to suck air into his lungs. “You mixed up… the bottles…” he gasped.

“Shiro?”

Shiro’s eyes rolled into the back of his head and he collapsed.

“Shiro!”

 

Keith magicked away the mess, completely at a loss for words at how he managed to forget to put the belladonna container back after making the muscle relaxant for Lance.

After Shiro had passed out he’d gotten him to the couch. His vitals were all alright, but the transformation must have knocked him out.

With the Belladonna successfully cleaned up from all over his floor, Keith ran back up the stairs to yank out Shiro’s clothes from where he’d stashed them for the wolf duration. They’d gone back around week two for the things left in storage by Shiro’s landlord when he disappeared.

The clothes were musty, but that was an easy charm. Now back downstairs though Keith was faced with the dilemma of dressing Shiro himself, or waiting for him to wake up.

Keith summoned the blanket from his bed and settled it over Shiro. There wasn’t anything left to do but wait for Shiro to wake up now.

When that was proving to take longer than an hour Keith checked Shiro again and, satisfied that he was still okay, went to the kitchen to call his mother.

“Hey Keith, what’s up?” She said. In the background he could hear 70’s rock. She was painting then.

“Sorry,” he said. “Am I interrupting?”

“No, no. This isn’t a piece for anywhere so I can just mess around with it. I’m trying to infuse it with slight anxiety.” She sounded giddy about it. Krolia’s talent was creating artwork that could evoke emotion in a space it occupied, even if the occupants weren’t looking at it. She was commissioned to make pieces for hospitals and corporate offices, but she never got to experiment with volatile emotions in her official work.

So she did at home and left it for her family to unwittingly discover. Keith was very happy he’d moved out.

“Right. Well um, Shiro transformed.”

“What!” From the other end of the line paintbrushes clattered against something. “When?”

“Just, just a little bit ago. I was making dinner and, like an idiot, didn’t magnate to get all my potion ingredients away.”

“Keith. I told you not to brew in the place where you cook!”

“The stove in the greenhouse is busted!” He protested. “And Lance needs this asap, he pulled something and he’s been whining to me for two full days. I know, I know, doesn’t matter safety first. Well, lesson learned, I nearly cooked dinner in belladonna oil.”

“My god, _Keith_ , once it his its smoke point the toxins could have asphyxiated you both!”

“I know, mom, I _know._ I’m going to be more careful. But Shiro did notice and he wouldn’t leave me alone, and he kept barking and pushing at me and, well, I dropped the tray and I went to pick it all up with my hands and he turned. Just started shouting at me that I was an idiot and it was the nightshade oil and… and then he collapsed.” He heard his mother’s intake of breath and rushed to finish, “he’s fine! I think the transformation just took it out of him, but yeah, Shiro’s back to human.” He let out a long breath.

“Okay. What are you going to do?”

Keith frowned. “What do you mean? I’m going to help him like I have been, mom.”

“Mmm,” Krolia sounded unamused. “So you’re going to keep spending all day together, working together, living together, _sleeping together_ , and pretend like it’s just the next step in his acclimation?”

Keith swallowed. “Yeah?”

“Keith. You have to tell him.”

“Mom.”

“Don’t tell me you don’t.”

“ _Mom_. It’s not the right time for that, he needs to get used to his new life. He’s been a wolf for the past three months for fucks sake! It’s really not the time to tell him.”

“You really think he lost his damn mind protecting you on the full moon out of some sort of obligation?”

“No, but… mom, come on. It really isn’t the time to tell Shiro I’m in love with him. He hasn’t even been able to talk for the past three months! That sounds… it sounds…” movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention. His heart stopped for the second time that night at the sight of Shiro standing in the kitchen with Keith’s blanket held against his waist. “I’ll call you back mom.” He hung up on his mother’s frantic shouting.

“Hey,” Shiro said, voice a little rough from disuse.

“Hey.” Keith cleared his own throat. “So uh, did you hear—”

“Yeah. Um, yeah, I did. Sorry. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop,” Shiro shrugged.

“Right, no, it’s okay.” He tapped his foot on the floor. “So um. Yup. I ah…” Keith closed his eyes. “I know it sounds terrible, and crazy, and weird because you were a wolf for most of the time, but you were still you. In every way you could be, and I really don’t see that changing all that much. I don’t, and I’m sorry if it makes everything weird. You don’t need to stay if you’re uncomfortable, I totally understand. Especially with the whole dream thing and just don’t feel like you have to… have to do anything okay? Plus—”

“I love you too.”

Keith peeled his eyes open. “Come again?”

“I love you too, Keith.” Shiro walked into the kitchen and knelt down in front of him. “It started from the moment you pulled me out of that alley. You were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. My knight in shining armor. Or down jacket and Dr. Martins. Whatever,” he chucked. 

“Then you took me in. I woke up warm and safe for the first time in a year to your face, and it was still the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, even with the way your hair sticks up after you sleep.” He laughed and Keith did too. “You healed me Keith, in more ways than one. I’d been broken and alone since I got back from service. It wasn’t like my life was breezy before all of this. The year I spent with that coven is still coming back in broken nightmares, as you well know.”

Keith did. There were rough nights aplenty, wrestling a thrashing wolf into remembering he was safe and whole. “They’re getting less,” he said.

“Because of you,” Shiro took Keith’s hands in his. “The shrink I was seeing before I went to Vrepit Sa kept telling me I needed to let people in, to make a new family around myself for support. I didn’t believe her until now. I’ve got that support now. I have _you_ , and your parents, the Marmora and the Holts, Hunk, Lance, and so many other people just because you decided you needed drag my carcass home.”

“I didn’t decide anything,” Keith whispered. “There wasn’t a choice. I’ve known you were going to be the man I fell in love with before we ever met. And I do, I love you so damn much Shiro—mmph!”

Shiro surged up and caught Keith in a hard kiss. It was teeth and too much pressure but it was right. It was so right after months of tension being proven correct. They broke away only to come together again, softer this time, with purpose and affection.

Keith slid off the chair into Shiro’s lap, basking in the fact that he could now. He pushed his hands into Shiro’s hair and tugged, pulled his head back just enough for Keith to lean down and pepper kisses down his neck.

“Fuck, Keith,” Shiro let out a breathy chuckle. “I think I’m more touch starved than I thought I’d be.”

“So touch me,” Keith said, pressing himself closer.

Shiro groaned and, in an impressive feat for someone who’d just passed out, hoisted Keith up into his arms and stood. The blanket pooled on the floor and Keith felt Shiro’s already half hard cock poking him though his sweatpants.

“Bedroom?”

“Yes, Shiro, _fuck_.”

Getting up the stairs involved a lot of wall crashing, which turned into wall kissing, which turned into Keith’s clothes getting hastily removed. That turned into harsh gasps as bare cocks meeting in the hallway and mindless rutting until finally, finally they landed in bed.

Shiro was over Keith, hovering only just beyond being pressed together thigh to chest, just enough room for his metal hand to run up Keith’s sternum and tweak a rosy nipple.

“Hah,” Keith panted. “Shiro, please, something.”

Shiro leaned down and took the nub into his mouth, suckling at it, letting his teeth scrape over it lightly. Keith squirmed under him. “Do you have any idea how many nights I had to curl up here, in bed with you, in nothing but those tight little boxer briefs?” His hands, huge and calloused, reached under Keith to grasp his ass and grind their hips together. “Do you know what it’s like to be a wolf and not satisfy your mate on a full moon? Because I do now, and let me tell you, _it fucking sucks_.”

“You-you wanted to—ohhhhh.” Shiro was rolling his hips now, precome spreading over both of them. Keith had the presence of mind to snap his fingers, slicking them both up for an easier glide. “Don’t think that I wasn’t suffering too, you great oaf. Do you know how many morning woods I had to waddle out of here with before you woke up? Huh?” He hooked his leg around Shiro’s hip and flipped them. Now that he was straddling Shiro he took to grinding them together in a slow rhythm.

“Yes, because you always _did_ manage to wake me up, you little shit.” Shiro reached down and took them both in hand, moaning as he did. “Shit, when I’ve got my energy back all the way I’m going to fuck you you so good Keith.”

“Yeah.” Keith tried to catch his breath but it was a lost cause. The feeling of his cock trapped against Shiro’s as the both fucked into Shiro’s fist was too much. “And if I want to fuck your brains out?”

“Fine. Great. All of it’s good. We’ll just be a mess of—ahh—horny idiots who fuck each other dumb.” He growled low in his throat. “Goddamn you feel so fucking good.”

“Ngghh, yeah, yeah do that with your thumb right there fuck!” Keith could feel his balls tighten. It’d been much too long since he’d been touched like this by someone else and it had him coming blindingly fast. He tense and twitched in Shiro’s hand before thick ropes spurted over them both.

Shiro groaned beneath him. “Fuck Baby, you look so good.” He hand sped up, fucking Keith through his orgasm and straight into his own, his hot come mixing with Keiths in his hand and over his chest.

Oversensitive and tired Keith flinched back out of Shiro’s grasp and Shiro let go, both of them breathing hard.

“Fuck,” Keith sighed, lilting to his side and flopping onto the bed. “Even if I didn’t love you I’d have to think of a way to keep you around for sex.”

Shiro snorted. “Your personal living sex toy?”

“Mmhmm.” Keith hummed. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a hand job feel that good before.”

“Helps when you have a sexy wolf doing it,” Shiro said with a wide grin.

Keith kicked at him. “You’re awful.”

“You wanted me,” Shiro said. He hefted himself up and padded off to get something to clean them up with presumably. Keith watched him go, smiling to himself as he did, warm all over from orgasm and shared affection.

Shiro came back and cleaned them both off, tucking Keith into bed as he did. “I think tonight might be one of your infamous cereal nights. I don’t know if I trust you in the kitchen after that.”

Keith groaned and buried his face in his pillow. “You have opposable thumbs now, you go fix the damn greenhouse stove.”

Shiro planted a loud, wet kiss on Keith’s shoulder. “Just might. But in the meantime, coco puffs or cap’n crunch?”

“Cap’n crunch,” Keith mumbled. “And stop witch-shaming me. We all make these mistakes.”

“From the way your mother was yelling you don’t.”

“I’m going to go bring home a nicer wolf, one who doesn’t judge me.”

“No, you won’t,” Shiro shook his hips for good measure as he sauntered out of the room.

Keith snorted and called after him, “You’re lucky you have a great ass!”

While Shiro got them some food Keith dozed. Getting back up from his nest of blankets when presented with a bowl of cereal and hot tea was difficult, but he managed. Shiro had his own bowl of coco puffs, complete with chocolate milk.

“Going all out are we?” Keith asked before taking a sip of tea.

“I haven’t been able to have chocolate during the most traumatic transition in my life. You can’t judge me.” Shiro took a huge bite of cereal, almost getting milk down his chin in the process.

Keith laughed, nearly spilling his own bowl onto the bed.

He had hoped, in the back of his mind, that this was what having Shiro around as a human would be like. That the teasing wouldn’t be any different, just with words. That the affection would still be soft and sweet, just with hands. He’d hoped but hadn’t dared to believe.

That night as they fell asleep, curled into each other, bare skin against bare skin, Keith thanked every deity he knew that he’d found this man in his arms.


End file.
